Dead Space: Ripper's Raiders
by N3vrd3ad
Summary: Before the events of the original Dead Space, A crew of Space Raiders known as Ripper's Raiders discover the Ishimura, and attempt to loot the ship, seeking untold riches. Follow Ratchet, head mechanic of the raiders, as he struggles to survive, as the narrative takes you to see key locations from the journey of Isaac Clarke.
1. Prologue

As the tall man in a suit walked into the dark room, I noticed an air of malice behind the calm demeanor he tried to display. This man was not one to mess with. Unfortunately, I wouldn't get the chance to mess with him even if I wanted to, because my hands were currently bound to the arms of the chair I was sitting in. Sitting down, the man flicked on a lamp hanging over us, and set down a glass of water between us.

"Are you thirsty? Help yourself." He said, as my arms clicked free of the bindings that formerly held me captive. I was incredibly thirsty, but I wasn't stupid. That water could've been drugged after all, so I just shook my head. This appeared to displease the man for a moment, before he shrugged and set down a recorder in front of me. "Tell me about yourself. Your name, where you live, what you do, things like that. We're _very_ interested in you, after all." He said. I cocked my head at the recorder before sighing, and beginning to speak.

"My name is Ratchet. No, I won't tell you my real name, because I don't know it. I'm a drifter, and I go where I'm needed. My job... I'm an engineer." I said.

"You're not telling us the whole truth, Mr. Ratchet. Don't fall under the illusion that we're all idiots here, we know all about your little _career_ as a raider, but I'd like to ask... Why you? You're far too young to be a fully qualified engineer, nor are you old enough to be a soldier, so tell me, why did Mr. Ripper choose _you_ as his most trusted advisor, _and _head engineer of your group?" Asked the man.

"How do you know all that?" I asked.

"You aren't the first we've interrogated from your team." Said the man. "Now, Answer the question, and don't even think about _lying_, because this little device we've plugged into you will tell us when you are." He said forcefully, pointing to the series of wires running up my arm, and onto my neck.

"When they found me, I was just a stupid kid. They led a raid on a ship called _The Falcon, _just outside the colony I was born on. My school was taking a field trip to earth, and we incidentally happened to be on board _that_ ship. So, of course, when Ripper realized that they were outgunned, they grabbed me and used me as a hostage as they returned to their ship. Once they got me on the ship, they didn't know what to do with me. I didn't know my parent's RIG numbers, so they couldn't call them to ransom me, so they debate simply ejecting me out of the ship, or just shooting me. As they were debating, the pilot got a little too involved in the argument, and collided the ship with an asteroid, damaging the hull. I told them I knew how to fix it, and just like that, hey strapped me into an engineer suit and ejected me from the ship to take a look. Most of them thought this would be an easy way to get rid of the kid that they were stuck with, thinking I'd lied about knowing how to fix it. A few others tried to protest, Ripper included, but in the end, there were too many who wanted me gone. Unfortunately for them, I DID know how to fix it, AND i got back inside before the pilot could get the ship moving again. So, long story short, they kept me, and I became the go-to guy for anything that got broken onboard _The_ Armageddon." I told the man.

"Good. Now, tell me about your crew." Said the man, satisfied I was answering truthfully.

"Well, I'm the engineer. Then you've got Ripper, the team leader, Kat, our medic, Dirge, our designated marksman, and Rider, our pilot." I told him. "Now can we stop pretending you don't know everything about me, and move on to the real questions?" I asked him. He looked a little taken aback, before smirking slightly, and nodding.

"Very well. How did you find yourself aboard the U.S.G. Ishimura? " He asked me. "How did you escape, and what did you learn? Give me every detail of the story, and don't leave anything out. If you do, well... Let's just say you _don't_ want that to happen to you..." He said, grinning evilly. I sighed, trying to figure out how I'd explain this to him.


	2. Chapter 1: Welcome to the Jungle

"Does it look salvageable?" Asked Ripper anxiously, pointing to the wreckage. The ship was huge, and although it was a little banged up, It was defiantly still usable, and if I could get it turned on... We'd be rich.

"Heck yeah." I said, folding my arms. "If we get it running, we'll be set for life! We don't even need to bring it to the boneyard for scrap, we can just bring it straight to the black market and put it up for sale, we'll get more credits then we'll be able to count!" This was exiting. That ship was abandoned, there was no doubt about that, more then half the lights were out, there was no radio chatter, except for the looping distress signal, and no mining ships moving between it and the vast chunks of rock that surrounded it. Then again, that made me a little nervous... "Umm... Ripper? Not to spoil the mood, but... With a ship _that_ big, it's gotta be abandoned for a reason..." I told him.

"Yeah, I thought about that." Said Ripper, sighing. "I can't think of why someone would just _leave_ it there like this, but... I'm not gonna pass up this opportunity." He said. "Would'ya do me a favor and call the team for briefing, Ratchet?" He asked me. Obliging, I walked across the room to the command table, and linked to the team's RIGs.

"All units, please report to the command center immediately for mission briefing." I said, sending the messages to them. Terminating the connection, I walked back over to the window where Ripper was standing, resting my arms on the railing, as we looked to the ship. I still felt uneasy about the ship, but I needed to be focused. I was the team Engineer, so of course I would be the backbone of this operation. I needed to stay focused. Kat, a skinny brunette who looked far too soft to be a member of a raiding team entered the room, sitting down at the command table. Next came Dirge, who's dark eyes rarely met anyone else's, then Rider, who had shaggy hair and a beard to match. As they all took their places at the table, Ripper gestured me to the head of the table.

"We need your expertise on this one. How are we gonna do this?" He asked me. I walked to the command table, pulling up a diagram of the ship. It was huge, to be sure. The U.S.G. Ishimura, according to the title I'd pulled up, was a planet cracker class ship, and it certainly looked like it.

"Alright." I said. "Assuming the ship's abandoned, we should enter _here-" _I said, pointing to the left landing docks of the ship. "And make our way to storage, Here-" I pointed to the storage facility on the map."-to check and see if this mining ship has any good loot. After that, We'll fix whatever needs to be fixed, and work from there." I said.

"This is a big ship. What d'you reckon we're gonna do with it?" Asked Rider, folding his hands neatly.

"Sell it. I bet _someone_ will buy it if we take it to the black market, and if we can't sell it as a whole, we'll break it down for scrap metal." Said Ripper impatiently. "Now, is everyone ready?" He asked. Everyone nodded in assent. "Then you're dismissed to the armory." He said, as we all stood up and headed to the bottom of the ship. As we walked, I noticed Kat looking at a picture of a boy with dark hair and a bright smile.

"Is that McCoy? The guy you've been telling me about?" I asked. She glanced over at me, surprised. "Y-Yeah, It is, why?" She asked me.

"Just curious, that's all. He treating you alright?" I asked her.

"What are you, My mother? Yeah, he treats me well." Said Kat, putting the picture away.

As we reached the Armory, We loaded up our standard gear. I pulled my combat suit on, before grabbing my tools. Not only did I carry our group's standard pulse rifle and repeater pistol, I also sported a plasma cutter and blowtorch for jobs that _don't _require shooting someone in the head(Which I'd gotten pretty good at as well, over the years.). I looked over and saw that everyone was still gearing up, so I headed back to the cockpit and watched as Rider brought us in to the landing position.

"Everybody, Man your stations!" Came Ripper's voice, echoing through our ship. I ran across the ship to the exit doors, stacking up behind Dirge, who regarded me coldly. He never talked much, and he had a cold air about him, so I took it as a warm greeting, nodding at him. As we came in to land, the door sprung open, and we moved out of the ship, moving across the catwalk. To my left, I saw Kat and Ripper moving across the catwalk adjacent to us. we reached the point where the bridges connected at the welcome station, and the three of them got ready to breach the door. I stood at the front of the door as I hacked it. At this moment, I was the most vulnerable, but we couldn't blow these doors open, they were solid steel, and at least a foot thick. As the door slid open, I picked up my rifle and took point. _Nothing._

"Clear!" Shouted Ripper, before looking around the room. "What the-" He said in disbelief. I turned from the door, which I'd wedged open with a steel bar, and my eyes immediately grew wide. In the dim light of the room, we saw a man pinned to the wall by what appeared to be a scythe, and written in blood next to him were she words: "Make us whole again."

"What the _hell_ happened here?" Asked Ripper, finally finding the ability to speak.

"I don't know!" Said Kat, covering her eyes. She was the medical expert among us, but it didn't take a genius to see that the man wad dead, and whoever killed him was still out there. At that moment, quarantine was initiated in the room, bathing us in a dim yellow light. Kat squealed slightly, as Ripper covered her mouth.

"Shhh! It's just a quarantine procedure, someone probably had some space dust on them. It'll pass soon, don't worry." He said. Kat calmed down, as Dirge and I readied our weapons, just in case. My breathing was shaky, and I was shivering, I'll admit it, but that was just because I was startled. My RIG made a hologram in front of me, labeled: "Call incoming". I clicked the answer button, and Rider's face appeared in front of me.

"What happened? Are you guys ok?" He asked frantically.

"Yeah, we found a... Corpse... and got quarantined."

"A corpse?"Asked Rider.

"I'll explain later. Can you set my marker to the nearest control panel? I want to disengage this stupid quarantine." I said.

"Way ahead of ya. Looks like you just gotta hit the panel by that door over there nothing too complicated. I'll work on bypassing locks that could get in your way en route to the storage facility."

"Good deal, Let's get going." I said as I turned on the interface, bypassing the security measures, and turning off the quarantine. The door slid open, and we headed through, as I glanced back at the corpse hung on the wall. The corridor we were in was dark, and altogether, very creepy. I turned on the flashlight attachment on my rifle, as we moved across the corridor. As we reached the end of the corridor, blocked by a door, I frowned at it. There was no power the door, meaning I couldn't hack it.

"Shit. What do we do now?" Asked Ripper, stomping his foot angrily.

"Look for a way around?" Proposed Kat.

"Ratchet." Said Dirge. Everyone stared at him. He never talked.

"Umm... Yes?" I said, walking over to him.

"This vent, it's missing the cover, meaning you can get inside..." He said.

"-And then what? The door's still unpowered." I said.

"According to the diagram you showed me, There is a power box on the adjacent side of the door. If you get to it, you can divert power to the door, and let us through." He said. I shrugged, peeking into the vent. It seemed safe enough. I slipped into the vent, and began crawling into the darkness.


	3. Chapter 2: First Encounters

The vent was cramped, dark, and dusty. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and even when I closed my helmet, the lights it generated were still barely enough to tell where I was. I had left my pulse rifle leaning against the wall at the entrance to the vent, to make it easier to move. I looked ahead, and saw the exit vent was also missing it's cover. Convenient for me, but also a little unnerving. I neared the vent, when the smell hit me. It was horrible, the familiar sickly-sweet scent of rotting flesh. Don't ask me why it was familiar, I'm a raider. I guess I'm used to it in a way. I crawled a little faster, not wanting to find out _why_ the smell was there.

"What was that?" I heard Kat ask, and before I could look back to ask what she was talking about, something warm and wet wrapped around my ankle. Reflexively, I kicked at it, and heard a high-pitched, angry scream. As felt myself dragged back slightly as it tugged at my leg, I tried to draw my pistol, but the vent was too small for me to move that much. I was helpless.

"Shoot it!" Cried ripper. The sound of three weapons firing in unison echoed through the vent, but the grip on my ankle only tightened. I pulled against it, trying desperately to pull myself out the other vent. The others commenced firing once more, and I suddenly felt the grip loose all of it's pull. It was still wrapped around my ankle, but it wasn't resisting. I yanked myself out of the vent, drawing my pistol, and pointing it at the thing. A bloody tentacle was wrapped around my foot, but it wasn't connected to anything. _They cut it off_. I kicked it off my foot.

"Ratchet! Get the door open! There's more of them!" Cried ripper into the vent, as another high-pitched scream echoed through the vent. I got to my feet shakily, as I moved to the power box, and began messing with the fuse box. _Click Click Click_ went the switches, but the box didn't seem to be doing anything. Angrily, I hit the box.

"The fuse box is fried!" I called down the vent.

"Fuck!" Shouted Ripper.

"What do we do now?" Screamed Kat.

"Get to the ship! I'll find a way back!" I said, standing back up. turning on my flashlight, I pointed my weapon down the hallway. It was barren, dark, and creepy as hell. On a normal day, there wasn't much you could do to convince me to walk down this hallway, but the alternative to it was far worse. I started down the hallway, as my RIG flashed a hologram in my face. Ripper and Kat appeared, Dirge in the background stomping on a disturbingly misshapen corpse.

"Ratchet! How are you going to get back to the ship?" Asked Kat.

"Find another way around, I suppose." I said, not taking my eyes off the end of the eerie hallway. "Get Rider to send me the map again, and I'll work from there." There was absolutely no power in this corridor, so I wasn't sure how I was supposed to open the doors. "First things first, I've gotta get power to these doors." I said. "And do you know how to do that?" Asked ripper. "No problem." I said, waving them off. "Fine, but be careful. These things don't die easy. Try to avoid a fight if you can." Said Ripper, ending the call. Great. I'm alone in a dark hallway surrounded by things that presumably want to eat me.

In the middle of the floor lay the most disturbing corpse I'd ever seen (Not that I'm proud to have seen more than my fair share of corpses). It's skin was a sickly, darkened, peach color, clearly rotting, and misshapen completely. It had two sets of arms, one very small pair coming out of it's chest, and another much larger pair, ending with viscous scythes. Keeping my weapon aimed at it, I crouched down cautiously to look at it.

In less then a second, it was on it's feet, screaming maniacally, and flailing its arms at me. Rolling back, I pointed my pistol at it's head, and fired away. It seemed completely unaffected by the head shots, as each bullet went clean through its skull. I backed up as it advanced at me, and I could swear it was _grinning_ at me, mocking me. My pistol clicked as its last shot punched through the thing's skull. Without thinking, I threw it at the thing, since it was useless anyway. I said a silent prayer, sure that this was the end for me.

Then I saw the tentacle, lying on the floor. The one they _cut off_. Reaching for my plasma cutter, the only real weapon I had left, I fired off a bolt at it's neck, and sure enough, I went through the thing's body like a knife through butter, and I felt a great sense of satisfaction as the head crashed to the floor. Looking down to the ground and sighing, I took in what had just happened. _What the hell did I just kill?_ It looked partially human, but how did they end up like this? As I contemplated this, another scream of rage echoed through the halls ahead of me. looking up, I saw that the recently-decapitated person/alien was flailing its arms/scythes wildly in my direction, like a headless chicken running around. Panicking, I fired another round at each of its legs, but it just dragged itself closer and closer, undaunted by the unfair odds. Who they were unfair for, me or him/her, I couldn't tell you. firing once more at its arm, cutting it clean off, It finally seemed to be dead. However, I'd already fallen for that once, so just to be sure, I cut its other arm off, and curb stomped its bloody torso for good measure. I stood there, out of breath, as I contemplated what had just happened. It didn't seem affected, until I started cutting it apart... what if that was the only way to kill them? I placed a RIG call to Ripper, who answered right away. He was standing in the ship's command center, Rider in the seat next to him, with his hand on Kat, who was crying.

"Ratchet! Listen, bullets don't work on these things, you've gotta-" He began

"Shoot for the limbs, I know. Don't bother with head shots, Dirge, they don't do anything." I said, believing Dirge was somewhere around him.

"Umm... about that..." Said Ripper "Remember that guy in the first room with the creepy blood graffiti? Umm... Well, there was this bat-type thing in there, and he unpinned himself from the wall, but... he was one of them." Explained Ripper.

"What does that have to do with Dirge?" I asked.

"Dirge... He didn't make it." Said Ratchet. I looked back at the corpse of the last one I fought, it's head was still rolling around of the floor. I stopped it with my foot, and crushed it. "Ratchet?" Asked Ripper uncertainly.

"Lets... Let's just get off this ship, alright? We'll grieve for him later." I said, holding back tears. He didn't talk to me much, but he was like family to me. I took a deep breath, waved off Ripper, and terminated the connection. I headed down the corridor.


	4. Chapter 3: The beast

The musty hallway reeked of that sickly-sweet smell of decaying bodies, mingled with the damp mustiness that told me it had been a while since someone had been down this way. I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm too old for that, but something seemed unnatural about the shadows of the corridor. Or maybe that was just my mind playing tricks on me. The flashlight attached to my plasma cutter illuminated the hallway to a certain degree, but what I really needed was to turn on the ships lights. To do that, however, I'd have to find the backup generator for this section of the ship, since the doors on this dinosaur of a mining ship couldn't be pried open by anything I was carrying.

I realized I'd stopped walking while thinking about this, so I started again, stepping lightly on the rusty metal floor, slowly carrying myself foreword to the door at the end of the hall. THAT door, thankfully, had a backup winch system to open the door. I neared the end of the hall, looking over my shoulder with every step. The shadows seemed to flicker, but hen I looked down the narrow corridor, nothing could be seen. My eyes were playing tricks on me. Taking a shaky breath, I took another step foreword, slowly inching my way to the door. How I wished I'd brought Dirge with me through the vent, somehow. Then, I at least wouldn't be alone...

_Then, he'd still be alive! _Said the voice in the back of my head. That brought me back to the grim reality of it. Dirge was dead. The guy who taught me how to shoot, and how to stay quiet in the heavy armor that was part of my RIG, a trick that had saved my life quite a few times when I was captured on a raid gone bad (They happen to everyone, even the best of us. Heck, if they didn't, I wouldn't be a raider today!). Although he was nowhere near the father-figure that Ripper was to me, he was still very important.

I shook my head violently. I couldn't dwell on it, if I wanted to stay alive here. Another one of those _things_ would come after me while I was standing there flashing back to all the good times we had. Reaching the winch, I slowly turned it, one hand on the winch, the other pointing my weapon at the growing gap under the door. Looking over my shoulder, all seemed good. Maybe the monsters we saw were just... escaped lab experiments. Maybe there weren't any more...

The door was finally open, and I slipped through the door frame quickly, as the winch creaked under the weight of the door. As I reached the other side, the door gave a loud groan, and slammed back down to the floor. I winced at the extremely loud noise it generated, as it echoed through the halls. I was in what appeared to be a hub of many other rooms, with doors- some functional, some not, and some covered in a strange, pink, fleshy substance that I decided I would avoid at all costs.

"Call Incoming..." Read the interface on my RIG, as a bloody Rider's face cam into view.

"Ratchet! Run! There's something big headed your way! it just busted through the-"He began, as the door that had just closed behind me bent suddenly, a huge crashing sound echoing around the room, just as it had a few seconds prior. "-door!" Finished Rider, ending the call. Not sure what to do, I hid behind the receptionist's desk, hoping that whatever it was, it wouldn't notice me. The door made a furious *Crash!* Sound as the beast entered the room, grunting furiously as it searched the room for me. After a few seconds, I risked a peek, and what I saw made me gag.

It looked like several corpses had been fused together into one mass of flesh, designed purely to make more corpses. It was like a zombie/alien version of a gorilla, and it moved like one too. Hell, it even made similar noises. It looked around the room, searching for its prey, and I knew that eventually, it would find me. And I didn't fancy my chances in a fight with THIS thing... It stood in place, looking around the room, before it sniffed the air, and I realized my mistake. I'd trapped myself. It cocked its head at the desk, and I hid behind it once more, looking desperately for an escape. I grabbed a piece of scrap metal, and tossed it across the room in a last-ditch effort. It seemed to grab the things attention, for sure, and it started advancing toward the noise. I slipped out from behind the desk and shuffled back down the hall I came through. I could see a light at the end of the long walkway a path cleared by my oversized friend, and the ship, thankfully still intact. I could get back there without turning on the power, thank god. From a crouched walk, I sped up as the distance between me and that gorilla of a corpse grew greater, until I was back in the lobby where we first entered. The man on the wall was gone, replaced by a familiar face, wide eyed and stiff. I walked over to him, noticing the bloody stab wounds covering his body. Here was the mangled remains of a man I considered a good friend, gone because of one mistake. We never should have come here. I closed his eyes, whispering to him.

"See ya, Dirge. Sorry I couldn't have saved you... I'll miss you, buddy." I said, pulling off a silver chain I was wearing around my neck, and setting it across his chest. In the raiders, it was customary to leave a token of respect on a fallen comrade, and I could already see a few trinkets lying around him from the others. Somewhere far away, I made out the faintest sound of a whisper, and I swear it sounded like Dirge saying "Thank you". Thinking little of it, I stood up, and carried on to the ship. As I stepped into the light, the ship came to life, pointing its massive guns straight at me.

"Ratchet! Thank god!" Came Riders voice, the guns lowering. "Get on board, now!"


End file.
